Ken Carr's daily read

I spent a great day at the Gridley conference in Manhattan. One of the best quotes came from the respected author, David Meerman Scott. I won’t get it precisely right, so I’ll have to paraphrase, but he was speaking to the changes in marketing. He said, historically, there were three ways to get attention: Buy it with ads; beg for it with PR; and using a salesforce, badger one person at a time. In the future, attention will have to be earned.

In my personal view, earning attention is another way of describing “engagement marketing.”

Well put, David.

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I spent a great day at the Gridley conference in Manhattan. One of the best quotes came from the respected author, David Meerman Scott. I won’t get it precisely right, so I’ll have to paraphrase, but he was speaking to the changes in marketing. He said, historically, there were three ways to get attention: Buy it with ads; beg for it with PR; and using a salesforce, badger one person at a time. In the future, attention will have to be earned.

In my personal view, earning attention is another way of describing “engagement marketing.”

Well put, David.

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Thanks to my colleague passing along this recent eMarketer article, which points out the interesting differences in the way B2B and B2C marketers approach social marketing.

According to the article, which cites a new Business.com social media benchmark study, both sets of marketers are rapidly adopting social media, but they are going about it differently. For example, B2B firms are more likely to manage profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, while B2C companies are more likely to be present on Facebook and MySpace. And, B2B companies are more likely to participate in discussions on third-party sites like Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn and monitor company mentions on various social media, while their B2C counterparts are more likely to support a system of user ratings and reviews and manage online communities for customers and prospects.

Of the many interesting takeaways, the one that surprised me most was the apparent higher level of focus on social marketing of B2B marketers over their B2C colleagues. I’ve always thought of social marketing as a consumer-centric endeavor, but as a B2B marketer, I think the relatively small number of customers makes it easier to engage on social media.

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Thanks to my colleague passing along this recent eMarketer article, which points out the interesting differences in the way B2B and B2C marketers approach social marketing.

According to the article, which cites a new Business.com social media benchmark study, both sets of marketers are rapidly adopting social media, but they are going about it differently. For example, B2B firms are more likely to manage profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, while B2C companies are more likely to be present on Facebook and MySpace. And, B2B companies are more likely to participate in discussions on third-party sites like Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn and monitor company mentions on various social media, while their B2C counterparts are more likely to support a system of user ratings and reviews and manage online communities for customers and prospects.

Of the many interesting takeaways, the one that surprised me most was the apparent higher level of focus on social marketing of B2B marketers over their B2C colleagues. I’ve always thought of social marketing as a consumer-centric endeavor, but as a B2B marketer, I think the relatively small number of customers makes it easier to engage on social media.

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Everyone in marketing vehemently agrees that data-driven targeting has the potential to change the world of marketing in the future. Well, a company called Next Jump appears to be doing it today. The firm, which serves as a technology engine to a sizeable network of retailers, analyzes data to draw inferences about what a person would be likely to buy, and at what price. It has kept a low profile over the years, but its promise and achievements so far are truly unique.

Described by one employee as a “personalized advertising platform,” the company says that 60 percent of Web surfers who see an ad or offer click on it, and that one out of every 11 people who see one of its ads makes a purchase. For comparison, a 5 percent click-through rate is considered great performance, as is getting viewer in 1,000 to make a purchase.

If you’re a fan of data-driven targeting, this short article about the company that recently appeared in the New York Times is worth a read.

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In the never-ending fight to block spam, Internet service providers first created content filters. Then came the “spam” button. And now, the gatekeepers of deliverability are looking at a new way to determine whether your email makes it to the inbox:

Engagement.

Every marketer talks about engagement (and we are big fans of the idea here at Silverpop). But the inbox folks at America Online, Yahoo and others are taking the idea to a new level. In short, if your recipients aren’t interacting with your messages, it could affect whether an ISP delivers your email.

As you can see in this Direct article on the topic, spammers have found a way around the spam button by artificially driving down complaint percentages. This is one reason the big ISPs are looking for new, even more inventive ways to determine if your messages are truly desired by your recipients. Engagement is becoming the new spam button.

While the details are still private, it’s a pretty good bet that ISPs will be looking at factors like opens and clicks to determine just how engaged your recipients are. If you want to successfully make it into the inbox and stay there, a low complaint rate will no longer be enough. Your recipients will actually have to read and interact with your messages.

This is definitely bad news for spammers. But in the greater scheme of things, it’s a move that will help legitimate marketers and recipients alike. As we move into 2010, it’s more important than ever to make sure your messages are relevant and engaging. Your lifetime customer relationships, ROI—and increasingly your email deliverability—are counting on it.

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Silverpop just released its analysis of early holiday email marketing campaigns, and the results make for some quick and meaty reading. Our research team looked at the email marketing programs of 70 retail and consumer product companies, comparing last year’s campaigns with those sent last month. Among the findings:

• Marketers sent 25 percent more emails in November this year than they did in 2008. During the week leading up to Thanksgiving through “Cyber Monday” following the holiday, they sent 22 percent more emails this year than last.
• Response jumped for subject lines offering discounts. Sixty-two percent of marketers studied this year used a discount offer of some type in the subject line, compared to 66 percent last year. In 2008, the open rate for emails offering discounts was only 17 percent. This year, it jumped to 31 percent.

• What kind of subject-line offer generated the most opens? A gift with purchase or buy-one-get-one (BOGO) promotion was far more likely to generate an open (36 percent) than a percent off (21 percent), or dollar or British pound off purchase offer (12 percent).

For more results, including list growth, deliverability, and open and click-through rates, check out our news release here.

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